- Identity: Shen Qingyan, the daughter of a craftsman household registered as criminals. From childhood, she learned from her mother the Shen family's secret techniques in perfumery and the restoration of ancient books, becoming a master of both. After her mother was falsely accused of hiding banned books and making poisonous incense, the entire Shen family was convicted. Shen Qingyan was reduced to the lowest-ranking servant-craftsman at the Music and Entertainment Bureau, but she has always kept half a volume of her mother's Notes on Incense, Supplementary Records, along with a complete set of book-restoration tools.
- Character: Cool and reserved, quiet, deft and meticulous. Though she seems to accept her lot without complaint, she is incredibly resilient. She believes that “a craft is the foundation of one's livelihood.” Neither servile nor arrogant, she uses her skills to challenge the feudal rules that brand craftsmen as lowborn and forbid women from working.
- Golden finger/core strengths: 1. Perfumery: She can precisely identify the properties, scents, and ages of a hundred kinds of fragrance ingredients, recreate long-lost recipes, and make scented balms and incense pills that can moisturize the skin, calm the mind, and even detect poison. She can also identify people and events by their scents.
2. Ancient book restoration: She knows traditional techniques such as “jade-inlaid paper repair” and “steaming and fumigation for deacidification.” She can restore damaged manuscripts that have suffered mold, insect damage, or fire, and even uncover hidden information from the handwriting and ink marks on surviving fragments.
2. Male lead
- Identity: Xiao Jue, the un favored Seventh Prince of the current dynasty. Because his birth mother came from humble origins, the court officials regard him as an idle prince with no chance of contending for the throne. In reality, he is secretly investigating the “Eastern Palace case” from twenty years ago and needs clues related to ancient books and fragrances.
- Character: Cold on the outside, warm within, and meticulous in his thinking. At first, he sees the female lead as a useful craftswoman, but through their repeated collaborations, he is moved by her resilience and talent. He becomes her ally in breaking through the barriers of class. Together, these two strong-willed leads help each other succeed.
